Pro-Choice States Should Protect the Right to Travel for Abortion
In a country without Roe v. Wade, any state that wants to offer abortion services to non-residents needs to take a proactive policy position.
An abortion clinic in Texas.
Photographer: BloombergSuppose Roe v. Wade is overturned. A recent fanfare of concern worries that a state would then be able to punish its citizens for traveling to other states to seek medical assistance in ending their pregnancies. Missouri is considering a statute that would do exactly that, and Texas activists are pushing a similar proposal. Other states may follow.
Would such a law be constitutional? It’s hard to be sure. The doctrine is a confusing mishmash, and the Supreme Court has declined to offer definitive guidance. Although legal scholars have been arguing since the 1990s in favor of a right to travel to seek an abortion, the last time the justices directly addressed the issue of a state’s power to punish crimes beyond its borders was ... um ... 1941.